Will Forte plays Kevin Avery in "Coyote vs. Acme," a bumbling personal-injury lawyer from Albuquerque who reluctantly takes Wile E. Coyote's case against Acme. In a film built as a live-action and animation hybrid, Forte’s character becomes the first speaking advocate for a coyote whose entire life has been defined by failed gadgets, missed opportunities and one very patient silence.
That is the hook drawing attention now: the studio is turning a familiar Looney Tunes setup into a courtroom comedy with a straight face. Kevin’s law practice is named for Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, a shorthand for the cartoon lineage the film is leaning on, while Wile E. Coyote first appeared in 1949 and was given his name and words in 1952. The movie also borrows loosely from Ian Frazier’s 1990 humor piece "Coyote v. Acme," which imagined the same absurd collision between a cartoon character and a corporate defendant.
Forte’s Kevin does not dive into the case with confidence. He reluctantly agrees to represent Wile E. Coyote, and the setup depends on that hesitation: he sees a weak personal-injury claim, while Paige, his ambitious intern and niece, sees something far darker in the Acme evidence. John Cena plays Buddy Crane, who leads Acme’s army of super-slick lawyers, and the company is framed as the kind of giant opponent that can turn even a joke into a fight.
The structure is built to push the story toward the kind of legal absurdity that animation can survive and live action can sharpen. Wile E. Coyote never breaks his vow of silence in the film, so Kevin has to carry the argument for him, which is why Forte matters so much here: the entire premise depends on a lawyer who can talk when his client will not. The film follows the template of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," but the real question is whether Kevin can prove enough to make the case land, or whether Acme’s polished defense will flatten it before the cartoons ever get their day in court.
For now, that is the point of the movie and the point of the casting. Forte is not just playing a lawyer; he is playing the person who has to decide whether a joke has legal weight. If the film works, it will be because Kevin Avery finally learns that Wile E. Coyote’s silence has been loud enough all along.
